A blog about my adventures as a professional garden writer, radio show host and obsessive veggie gardener! My first book, the award-winning, The Year Round Vegetable Gardener, was published in 2012 and Groundbreaking Food Gardens hit shelves in March 2014!

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Tuesday, March 12, 2013

Spring - The Countdown is On!!

An overall look at a few of the Halifax Seed seed racks..
Spring is here!!

Yep, we're just over a week away until the 'big day', when we can officially celebrate the start of spring. Personally, I've already got a bit of spring fever and have started celebrating early. This Friday I'll be at Canada Blooms in Toronto talking about Year Round Veggie Gardening, but I've also been inspired by my recent visit to the Halifax Seaport Farmer's Market and I may have 'accidentally' stopped into Halifax Seed this morning. Oops! But 'tis the season and it's such a fun place to visit.. I may also have 'accidentally' picked up a 'few' packets of seed..

I will be live tweeting and blogging about my Canada Blooms adventure this Friday and Saturday, but for now, I thought I'd share a bit of spring with you! To follow my tweets on Canada Blooms or my random garden musings, click here. For facebook, click here.

Owen Bridge, the owner of Annapolis Seeds sharing his
wares at the farmer's market.

Owen's new seed packets, with art from one of his talented friends.

I perused the seed racks at Halifax Seed this morning - they
have some wonderful new varieties, including pattypan zucchini!
Love these prolific and pretty summer squash.

I grew these petunias last year - Fusables Silk N'Satin. This is the time
to plant them indoors now!! Gorgeous HUGE flowers in
bold and vibrant colours. Very easy to grow.

And look, Halifax Seed shares the local seed-love by
carrying a rack of Annapolis Seeds varieties. This
pole bean is a favourite of Owen Bridge.

Drool.. amazing light racks for starting seeds.

Cloches! Great for protecting early clumps of
salad greens and kale, or tender tomatoes, eggplants
and peppers from frost. Also, note their sign - a
Fruit Tree seminar tomorrow!

These are what I use to start my seeds. Trays with
cell packs are an efficient use of space and can be
reused or recycled at the end of the season.

A new cosmos! The experts at Halifax Seed (Carla and
Margie) tell me this is a top seller. I love Cosmos, but haven't
tried this new one. Compact and great for attracting
pollinators and beneficial buggies to the garden. Plus
you can cut the flowers for long-lived bouquets.

One more squash - an heirloom favourite of mine!

Look Ma, it's my book! Just 3 copies left and now
freshly signed. Oddly enough, the Backyard Homestead
beside my book is a wonderful book by my book editor,
Carleen Madigan.. weird, eh?

3 comments:

I am sad to say, though I would love some help here, that I purchased Annapolis seeds- Brandywine tomato and dill seeds- and not a single sprout came from them. I do not know what went wrong. I may not purchase their seeds again, but I would love to know why nothing happened when I pre-germinated and planted the seeds.

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